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Optimise Firefox for the Asus Eee PC Print E-mail

Step 10
You can access your bookmarks with the [Ctrl] + [B] keyboard shortcut – it brings up a separate pane in the browser window. There is a better way of working with bookmarks in Firefox though, via the Bookmarks Toolbar.

The Bookmarks toolbar runs beneath the Navigation toolbar – it just contains a couple of bookmarks by default. With the bookmarks pane open ([Ctrl] + [B]), click the + sign next to Bookmarks Toolbar Folder and you can drag the bookmarks you use regularly into it.

Step 11
With a little organisational effort, you can use the Bookmarks toolbar for all your bookmarks, with folders and subfolders to keep everything tidy. Here’s a screenshot of my bookmarks toolbar.

Step 12
You’ll notice that my Bookmarks toolbar has names for folders, but only shows easily recognised favicons for individual bookmarks. This is done with another extension – Smart Bookmarks Bar.

Step 13
Install the extension and restart Firefox, then go to Tools > Addons (via the Personal Menu button, remember) to configure it. Find the extension in the list, select it and click Options.

Step 14
The screenshot shows my preferred settings – I hide bookmark names completely and rely on their favicons to identify them (more on this later), but keep folder names visible. I also enable the Auto-hide bookmarks bar option so that it’s hidden until I need it. Click OK and restart Firefox when you’re done to see the changes.

Step 15
If you can’t see the favicon for a site, open from the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder and Firefox should pick it up. If you have lots of bookmarks in a folder on the toolbar, select the Open All in Tabs option and wait patiently while Firefox opens each page and assigns the favicons.

Step 16
That’s all there is to optimising Firefox to make the most of the low resolution screen of the Asus Eee PC 900 or 701 – or any other laptop, for that matter – but here’s on final tip (did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments). Eee PC 701 users with limited disk space would do well to adjust Firefox’s cache size. Go to Tools > Options > Advanced and click the Network tab. Firefox uses a 50Mb cache by default, but you can drop this to something like 10Mb if you’re running short of disk space.

Firefox 3 

These steps were all carried out using Firefox 2, but both Personal Menu and Smart Bookmarks bar will work with Firefox 3 (Firefox 3 RC1, at the time of writing).

Personal Menu only supports Firefox 2 so far, but if you open the download page in Internet Explorer, you can download the personal_menu-3.0.9-fx.xpi file to the Desktop (this won’t work in Firefox 3 – it detects the incompatible extension and won't download it).

You’ll then need to install the Nightly Tester Tools extension for Firefox 3 – this adds an Override all compatibility button to the Extensions dialog box that will fix most compatibility issues. Just drag the downloaded personal_menu-3.0.9-fx.xpi file onto the Extensions window, then you can install the extension.

Smart Bookmarks bar 1.4 only works with Firefox 2, but version 1.4.1, available from the author’s website, is Firefox 3-compatible.

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written by Lazy Man and Money , May 23, 2008

I would have liked to see this start with downloading Firefox 3... it scaling to fit the page is that much better.
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written by ?????? , May 23, 2008

Thank you very much. Very useful!
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written by MamiyaOtaru , July 26, 2008

erm.. it'd be a lot easier (and require fewer extensions) to hide the bookmark bar and leave the menu where it is, including (as it does) a bookmarks menu
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Thanks
written by Bigness , September 08, 2008

Great guide, but I will hide to Bookmarks toolbar as well. It will give an extra line and the bookmarks are under the menu.
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Great guide
written by GibbZ , September 09, 2008

This is a great tip for us mini laptop users.Thanks for sharing! :lol: Another handy addon is the "Fission" plugin. It shows the progress off web pages loading in the navigation bar where you enter the web site address. It`s an nice graphic progress bar that highlights the text. Give it a try!
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Fennec!
written by Clooney , October 20, 2008

Or, one could install the alpha version of Fennec and get scaling and excellent "small-device" rendering capabilities.

A bit rough and buggy still, but will no doubt become the by far best way to browse on an EEE 701 once it's been released in beta/stable.

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more firefox tips & useful extensions
written by Saskia , October 22, 2008

I highly recommend customising your toolbars to edit out any buttons you don't really need, and to try to cram the rest into as few toolbars as possible.

Also, there are a few more extensions that can help:
- I use autoHideStatusbar to keep the status bar hidden until needed, since I do find the status bar too useful to hide permanently (the status bar lets you know pages are loading properly, tells you where links are going to take you, and is used by many extensions to provide feedback, so I don't want to get rid of it entirely); AHS shows the bar when you hover over a link, when a page is loading, or when any other event occurs that uses the status bar. There's also an optional toolbar button to toggle it on an off.
- Hide Tab Bar is similar in principle to autoHideStatusbar. There's a shortcut key (Ctrl+F11 by default, which is easy to remember as the full-screen shortcut is F11 and used for a similar purpose), plus the option to auto hide the tabs, although the autohide option gets annoying after a while as the screen jumps around every time the tab bar toggles, so I only use the shortcut.
- All-in-one sidebar: makes good use of the extra width of the Eee screen by giving you a "hidable" customisable toolbar on the side of the screen and the option to open almost anything in the sidebar by default. This is good if you want extra toolbar buttons without cluttering up the overhead toolbars - I generally use this toolbar for anything that uses the sidebar (e.g. the buttons for the Delicious extension, as I use the Delicious sidebar a lot - in fact that's another tip: Delicious reduces the need for a bookmarks toolbar. I still have a bookmark bar but it only has one folder with a minimal number of links in. I tag all of my favourite bookmarks with "*favourites" then I have the Delicious bookmarks toolbar in "favorites view", with only the "*favourites" tag visible. This replaces my need for a full bookmarks toolbar entirely)

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LittleFox
written by Charlies Mummy , November 06, 2008

One of the best ways we found to reduce the Firefox footprint on a 7" Eee was the Littlefox add-on.
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thanks mate!
written by fjol , December 27, 2008

easy, clear & useful
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